Just in time for Halloween: The Spooky Legend of ‘Martha’s Bridge

Marion’s creepiest locale still haunts the memories of longtime residents

ralphhardin@gmail.com The scariest night of the year is just a few days away….

No, not the 2022 election.

I’m talking about Halloween! But it doesn’t have to be October 31st to stir up some scares around here.

You only need look at the popularity of horror movies, ghost-hunting TV shows and haunted houses to know that we love to be scared. A good spooky story is sure to generate interes, especially if it’s somewhere close to hom.

Ask any longtime Crittenden County resident what the scariest place in the county is and you’re likely to get a variety of answers. Maybe the cemetery. Maybe some old house out in the country.

But one place that will definitely come up more than any other is Martha’s Bridge out in Marion, just east of the River Trace subdivision.

So, what’s the real story behind Marion’s most ‘ haunted’ locale? Well, that’s still a mystery, which sort of adds to the legend, doesn’t it?

If you’ve lived around here for any length of time, you’ve probably heard some version of the supposedly haunted “Martha’s Bridge” at one time or another.

Well, here as Halloween arrives, it might be appropriate to dig into the legend a little bit — but you don’t want to dig too deep… never dig too deep.

Just in case you’re not in the know (Welcome to our community!), Martha’s Bridge is an old two-lane bridge out on Marion Lake Road, It used to be out in the middle of nowhere, adding to the spooky ambiance, but some of that has gone away now that you can see porch lights while standing on it.

Not that standing on it is a good idea, since that’s one of the ways to summon whatever evil lurks in the vicinity. Probably… maybe… opinions vary.

One thing for sure is you have to do… well, something… to conjure up the spirits. You have to flash your headlights, honk your horn, yell “Martha!

Martha! Martha!” like Jan Brady with a lisp. There are a number of recipes to follow, but everyone has their favorite.

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Photo by Ralph Hardin MARTHA (cont.)

Martha’s Bridge even has a bit of an online following.

Just get on Facebook and search for Martha’s Bridge and you’re bound to find a tall tale or two. Here are a couple…

Writes “Jullie”: “The story is, there was a couple who were at the bridge late at night and they got into a bad argument. The woman tried to run away from the man but he was faster than her. He grabbed her and put her head over the railing and chopped it off with the axe that was in the back if his truck. He threw the head and body over the railing. People say if you go on that bridge late at night you can see the girl carrying her head. My grandfather is from that area and has went to that bridge and said he saw the woman.”

Well, if you can’t trust Jullie’s grandfather, who can you trust?

“Foreal” (probably an alias… you don’t want the spirits to know your true identity) says: “The story I always heard is, Martha was driving her car and went off the bridge, Martha and her child. Martha’s body was found but the child’s wasn’t. So, late at night go out there turn your car off and say, ‘Martha I got your baby!’ See what happens, Jack!”

Jack, you’ve been warned… Another one: “All right, we’ll there was Martha and her husband and her husband

so they were in a coach (horse and buggy) after midnight one night and she and her baby jumped and when she jumped she dropped her baby and her baby’s head was gone she started screaming ‘Elizabeth’ over and over again, and you can go out there in a full moon at 12:34 and you can hear her screaming through the slough!”

There won’t be a full moon again until Nov. 8, so you’ll have to wait a week or so to test this theory.

My personal favorite is when I went out there with some friends and we parked on the bridge. We were all sitting there when all of a sudden, the car just died… like completely dead. And this was pre-cell phone. My sister’s friend completely freaked out and got out of the car and literally begged Martha to “let us go!”

Luckily, she did. But she’s still out there… waiting… watching.

On that note, Happy Halloween!